How ethnicity acts as a moderator for parental style, adolescent well-being, and academic self-efficacy and interest.

Abstract

Abstract

Socio-economic status (SES) is known to influence factors such as (1) parenting style, (2) the children’s internalizing and externalizing, and (3) the child's self-efficacy levels. This study considered the associations between the parenting style used, a child's internalizing and externalizing, and the child's self-efficacy level while also considering how a family's ethnicity modified these associations. To investigate these associations, archival data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics was analyzed. In this study, all families lived under the poverty level and the parents reported their parenting style and the emotions and behaviors of their children. It was found that high parental warmth leads to higher levels of self-efficacy in math for both European American and African-American children. The discussion will focus on the extent of SES influencing these relationships and what preventative measures can be used to decrease the achievement gap among children of different ethnicity and income levels.